Although we didn’t get an announcement on a Star Wars Sequel Trilogy until Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, franchise creator George Lucas had been quietly formulating his plans for three new movies picking up after 1983’s Return of the Jedi.
As Lucas has previously revealed, the Mouse House jettisoned all of his ideas for the new films, ditching a script from Michael Arndt (Toy Story) in favour of starting over for what would become Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
As yet, we’ve never really heard anything in the way of concrete details regarding Lucas’ vision for the Sequel Trilogy, but Mark Hamill has thrown out a few nuggets of information during an interview with IGN.
“I happen to know that George didn’t kill Luke until the end of [Episode IX], after he trained Leia. Which is another thread that was never played upon,” said Hamill. “George had an overall arc – if he didn’t have all the details, he had sort of an overall feel for where the [Sequel Trilogy was] going – but this one’s more like a relay race. You run and hand the torch off to the next guy, he picks it up and goes.”
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Unlike Lucas, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has admitted that Lucasfilm had no firm story plans for Episodes VIII and IX going in to The Force Awakens., while Hamill has said that he wishes Disney had stuck to George Lucas’ original outlines.
Hopefully one day we’ll get some detailed insight into Lucas’ plans – and Michael Arndt’s script – so we can compare the original vision for the films with that of Disney’s Sequel Trilogy.
In Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi sees returning cast members Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke), Peter Mayhew and Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb) and Warwick Davis joined by new additions Jimmy Vee (Pan) as R2-D2, Kelly Marie Tran (Ladies Like Us) as Rose, Benicio Del Toro (Guardians of the Galaxy) as DJ and Laura Dern (Jurassic Park).